Tropical Shrimp Pasta Salad

By Mary Susan

This refreshing Tropical Shrimp Pasta Salad is loaded with pineapple, cabbage, shrimp, tomatoes, and pasta. A perfect dinner or side dish.

Story Behind Tropical Shrimp Pasta Salad

There is a cute little restaurant near our home here in Portugal. It’s called the Lombos Club and is attached to a sports club. From the sound of it, we didn’t think much of it until our landlord told us they served really good food. We’ve been 4 times now.

One of my favorite things to order there is this Tropical Shrimp Pasta Salad. I was worried about ordering it because a “portuguese” salad usually consists of lettuce and tomato. If you’ve ever visited Europe, you also know that salad dressings aren’t really a thing here. However, I didn’t feel brave enough to get the fish plate of the day, so I ordered this.

I was pleasantly surprised and gobbled up every bite of my tropical shrimp pasta salad. I love the combination of the lettuce and cold pasta. It’s heartier than your typically salad, so it makes a good meal. However, it could also be delicious as a side!

Ingredients You Need for Tropical Shrimp Pasta Salad

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Shrimp- For this recipe I suggest using precooked shrimp. It can be frozen and thawed or fresh from the fish counter at your grocery store.
Pineapple- Please, please, please use fresh pineapple in this recipe. Canned pineapple just won’t taste as good. I love to use this pineapple corer/slicer. It really makes eating fresh pineapple easy.
Cherry Tomatoes- Cherry tomatoes work best in this recipe. A regular garden tomato won’t give that same pop of flavor.
Hard Boiled Eggs- Any salad is delicious with hard boiled eggs!
Cabbage- I prefer to use pre-shredded purple cabbage.
Green Leaf Lettuce- I prefer to use a head of green leaf lettuce for this salad. Romaine would also work.
Fusilli Pasta- The texture of this twirly pasta is just perfect.
Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar- Like I said above, Europeans don’t typically use dressings. A drizzle of high quality olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar is a great addition.

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